Wilfrid Ewart

Ewart was an Englishman who survived the First World War.
He happened to be in Mexico City on New Year's Eve (San Silvestre) 1922.
He was watching the celebrations in the streets below
from the balcony of his room 53 at the Hotel Isabel.

The following day, 1 January 1923, he was found dead on the balcony
by Angelina Trejo de Estrevelt, a hotel chambermaid.
Apparently he had been shot in the left eye by a stray bullet fired by an unknown reveller.
Ironically he had been blind in that eye.

Ewart's life, and the events surrounding this bizarre death,
have been developed by the enigmatic Spanish author Javier Marías
in his "false novel" Negra espalda del tiempo [Ediciones Alfaguara Barcelona, 1998].
(Published in English as Dark Back of Time).